Description
Book SynopsisBased on fieldwork among Pentecostal men in Caracas, Venezuela, this ethnography seeks an explanation for the explosion of Evangelical Protestantism, unraveling the cultural and personal dynamics of Evangelical conversion to show how and why these men make the choice to convert, and how they come to have faith in a new system of beliefs.
Trade Review"Within the context of a continuous social crisis, I consider Smilde's book a most valuable and helpful contribution in this field." Missiology
Table of ContentsA Note on Translations and Names Acknowledgments PART ONE: BEGINNINGS 1. Making Sense of Cultural Agency 2. The Venezuelan Context: Confronting La Crisis PART TWO: IMAGINATIVE RATIONALITY 3. Imagining Social Life I: Confronting Akrasia, Crime, and Violence 4. Imagining Social Life II: Addressing Personal and Social Issues 5. Imagining Evangelical Practice PART THREE: RELATIONAL IMAGINATION 6. The Social Structure of Conversion 7. Two Lives, Five Years Later 8. Toward a Relational Pragmatic Theory of Cultural Agency Epilogue Appendix A: Status of Evangelical Respondents after Five Years Appendix B: Methods and Methodology Appendix C: Quantitative Analysis of Networks and Conversion Glossary of Spanish Terms References Index
